Officers of New Scotland Yard’s Specialist Crime South initially seized 70 kilograms of cocaine that had been smuggled into the United Kingdom from mainland Europe and transferred into a sophisticated hide in a commercial van to be taken to a sorting house for onward distribution to wholesale suppliers.

Subsequent investigations revealed a wider conspiracy involving multiple importations of cocaine, and the wholesale distribution of approximately 500 kilograms around the United Kingdom over a period of 7 months.

The drugs were smuggled into the United Kingdom hidden within legitimate goods conveyed by reputable companies as part of a complex and extensive organised criminal enterprise. Expert evidence placed the offending within the international drugs trade, and established the quantities involved to have a wholesale value of £17 million and a street value in excess of £50 million.

Following a 5-week trial before Kingston Crown Court, all four Defendants charged in this conspiracy were convicted and substantial custodial sentences imposed.

https://news.met.police.uk/news/met-police-foil-drug-gang-who-supplied-half-a-ton-of-cocaine-across-london-497456

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14583133/Gang-cocaine-Britain-Netherlands-police-Norfolk-holiday-prison.html

https://www.mylondon.news/news/4-drug-dealers-jailed-smuggling-31375911

https://www.sloughexpress.co.uk/news/crime--courts-and-inquests/201376/slough-cocaine-smuggler-23-jailed-over-trojan-horse-drugs-gang-bust.html